Think you know theatre? There're a few productions headed to the Melbourne Festival that beg to differ. If you're in search of a boundary-busting experience, these are the trailblazing shows that have thrown out the rulebook to toe the bleeding edge of the art form's future.
Germinal
To say that this show is a bit ambitious would be a bloody big understatement. French theatre makers Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort attempt to conjure the universe on stage in just one hour, in a show that offers both wisdom and whimsy in plentiful supply. The cosmic vastness of time and space stands shoulder to shoulder with the intimate, insular prism of human thought; prepare to step out of this performance with a spring in the synapses and more than a few questions on your lips.
When & Where: 19 - 22 Oct, Malthouse Theatre
Please Continue (Hamlet)
The courtroom is not only a place of law and order, it's also a kind of theatre, where reason, morality and intellect take centre stage. In Yan Duyvendak and Roger Bernat's ground-breaking experiment, they take this notion to the next level. Real barristers, a bonafide judge, and fully qualified professional court psychologists, stenographers, and QCs, all sourced from Australia's legal system, will try Shakespeare's troubled Danish prince Hamlet, charged with murdering Ophelia's father Polonius. A jury of Melburnian peers will then debate the sentence to a reach a verdict that changes with every performance.
When & Where: 5 - 9 Oct, Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne
All Of My Friends Were There
We've all got one, but how they make us feel varies dramatically from person to person. Whatever your personal stance on birthdays, Aussie theatre mavericks The Guerrilla Museum are ready to throw a happy return like no other. At each performance, real experiences of birthdays, sourced from the evening's audience, become the building blocks for a show-cum-birthday bash extravaganza. Touching, utterly original, and uproariously uplifting, getting older has never been so entertaining.
When & Where: 5 - 11 Oct, Theatre Works
More Up A Tree
Theatre is voyeurism with permission, but the relationship between a performer and their audience can be a hugely influential aspect of a show. So, what happens when you sever that connection? Drummer Jim White of the Dirty Three and Claudia de Serpa Soares of legendary European dance outfit Sasha Waltz And Friends, become living museum exhibits, sealed within a glass box. Inside, there are one-way mirrors; we can see them but they can't see us. The pair let rip in a gloriously uninhibited duet - this is what it looks like when someone dances like nobody's watching.
When & Where: 12 - 14 Oct, The Substation
